THE CHRONICLE SEASON OF SHARING FUND / Tires and tuneup to keep immigrant family rolling / Air purifier for boy with cystic fibrosis also out of reach

sos_fuentes070014.jpg Event on 12/2/05 in San Bruno.
Rosa Fuentes (left rear), her daughter Reny Fuentes, 15, and son Jonathan Miranda Fuentes, 6, in their San Bruno apartment. Season of sharing profile of Fuentes, a mother who has found housing after an abusive relationship but now needs equipment to help Jonathan, who is afflicted with cystic fibrosis. For further info: Rosa Fuentes at 650-583-2182, home.
Chris Stewart / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT less

sos_fuentes070014.jpg Event on 12/2/05 in San Bruno.
Rosa Fuentes (left rear), her daughter Reny Fuentes, 15, and son Jonathan Miranda Fuentes, 6, in their San Bruno apartment. Season of sharing profile of ... more

Photo: Chris Stewart

Photo: Chris Stewart

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sos_fuentes070014.jpg Event on 12/2/05 in San Bruno.
Rosa Fuentes (left rear), her daughter Reny Fuentes, 15, and son Jonathan Miranda Fuentes, 6, in their San Bruno apartment. Season of sharing profile of Fuentes, a mother who has found housing after an abusive relationship but now needs equipment to help Jonathan, who is afflicted with cystic fibrosis. For further info: Rosa Fuentes at 650-583-2182, home.
Chris Stewart / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT less

sos_fuentes070014.jpg Event on 12/2/05 in San Bruno.
Rosa Fuentes (left rear), her daughter Reny Fuentes, 15, and son Jonathan Miranda Fuentes, 6, in their San Bruno apartment. Season of sharing profile of ... more

Photo: Chris Stewart

THE CHRONICLE SEASON OF SHARING FUND / Tires and tuneup to keep immigrant family rolling / Air purifier for boy with cystic fibrosis also out of reach

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Rosa Fuentes purchased the comfortable sofa and lounge in her living room for $50. The framed prints and artificial flowers are from the dollar store. The large television was a gift from a friend.

But the medicine in the refrigerator is another story. It's prescribed for her son Jonathan's cystic fibrosis, and each refill can cost $1,000.

"I don't own anything expensive, but some things we need," Fuentes, 40, said in her San Bruno apartment under the path of jets roaring from San Francisco International Airport.

The lives of Fuentes and her two children are reminders that even when major problems are overcome, the struggles of daily life persist. Fifteen-year-old daughter Reny must watch 6-year-old Jonathan while Fuentes makes pizzas at Chuck E. Cheese's. There is money for rent and food, and Jonathan's medicine is covered by health insurance, but it's a scramble to set money aside when unexpected needs press down.

That's why the assistance that Fuentes sought through Season of Sharing was so simple and mundane: a new air purifier to help Jonathan breathe easier indoors, and a tuneup and four new tires for Fuentes' 1990 Toyota Corolla.

Fuentes went to the North Peninsula Neighborhood Services Center in South San Francisco last month to apply for its holiday program, which offers food and gifts. But in conversations with staff, it came out that Jonathan's medical needs brought pressures on every other aspect of the family.

"As we talked, it became clear her problems were more overwhelming than she at first let on," said Stella Miranda, lead social service specialist at the center. "Everything gets thrown out of whack with one little emergency."

"I wish more of my clients had the strength she has," Miranda said. "She wants her children to have happiness, so she rises above it all and she's smiling."

She's had practice.

Fuentes deflected the first big blow in her native El Salvador: Her husband died just after Reny's birth. Fuentes left her country and headed north alone, leaving Reny in her mother's care.

"It was terrible. I felt I was pregnant for seven years," is how Fuentes described the long separation from her daughter. But she still looks back on it as her only option: "In my country I graduated as a secretary, but there was no work there."

Fuentes found work in the Bay Area and, with time, enough stability to bring Reny north. She entered another relationship and had another child, Jonathan.

When her son's father turned abusive, Fuentes found the strength to take her children away to a shelter and press charges. The nine months in the shelter were hard, but Fuentes found a job and the apartment, which has a yard with a lemon tree, and room for Jonathan to kick his soccer ball against the garage door.

Jonathan happily volunteers that his favorite toys are his mother and sister; Reny lights up with a smile when, after describing the way she gives Jonathan his medication and rubs his neck while her mother is at work, she's asked if little brothers are ever annoying.

And if Jonathan's cystic fibrosis makes it difficult for him to breathe after physical exertion, or even after breathing the dirt trapped in the carpet of their apartment, he remains as irrepressible as any 6-year-old.

As Fuentes spoke brokenly -- "when he gets exhausted he needs medicine ... if he doesn't use this medicine, maybe he dies" -- Jonathan comically froze up with wide eyes and then pitched over on the couch.

Fuentes laughed in spite of herself.

"They're good children," she said.

Donations to the Season of Sharing Fund help thousands of people in the Bay Area throughout the year. Assistance is in the form of grants paid directly to the supplier of services, such as a landlord. Individuals cannot receive direct grants. For more information visit: www.seasonofsharing.org.